<i 


.  JUL    2    iges 


CAUSES     OF     THE     DECLINE     OF     DOCTRINAL     PREACHING. 


SERMON 


PREACHED  BEFORE  THE 


PASTORAL    ASSOCIATION    OF    MASSACHUSETTS, 


PARK  STREET  CHURCH,  BOSTON, 


MAY  25,  1841. 


BY  PARSONS   COOKE. 


SECOND      EDITION. 


BOSTON: 

PRESS  OF  T.   R.  MARVIN,  21  CONGRESS  STREET. 

184  1. 


SERMON. 


II  Timothy,  iv.  3,  4. 

FOR  THE  TIME  WILL  COME  WHEN  THEY  WILL  NOT  ENDURE  SOUND 
DOCTRINE;  BUT  AFTER  THEIR  OWN  LUSTS  SHALL  THEY  HEAP  TO 
THEMSELVES  TEACHERS,  HAVING  ITCHING  EARS,  AND  THEY  SHALL 
TURN  AWAY  THEIR  EARS  FROxM  THE  TRUTH,  AND  SHALL  BE  TURNED 
UNTO  FABLES. 

Paul  here  urges  Timothy  to  ply  his  ministry  well 
while  he  may ;  for  the  time  would  come  when  the  popu- 
lar ear  would  demand  what  he  could  not  wisely  give,  and 
when  professing  Christians  would  not  endure  sound  doc- 
trine, but  would  seek,  through  a  constant  change  of  min- 
isters, the  gratification  of  their  lusts  of  mind,  and  of  a 
prurient  fancy.  If  the  text  gives  character  to  an  age  of 
gospel  hearers,  that  prefer  a  kind  of  preaching  addressed 
to  the  imagination  and  the  taste,  and  such  as  will  fall 
pleasantly  upon  an  itching  ear,  instead  of  that  which  will 
reach  the  heart  and  transform  the  soul,  it  is  fully  applica- 
ble to  the  present  age.  The  taste  of  the  age  is  told,  by 
the  kind  of  preaching  which  we  know  to  be  the  most 
popular  in  it.  Now  what  kind  of  preaching  will  draw 
.liter  it  the  greatest  throng  of  hearers?  And  how  shall 
one  qualify  himself  to  be  the  most  popular  preacher  ? 
Shall  he  seek  the  solid  gold,  or  the  glaring  tinsel  of  Chris- 
tian eloquence  ?  Shall  he  bathe  in  the  fountains  of  eter- 
nal truth,  and  bring  down  the  grasp  of  the  strong  doc- 
trines upon  the  heart ;  or  shall  he  affect  the  eloquence  of 
words,  the  gorgeous  display  of  language,  the   polish   of 


4 

manner  and  style,  the  neatly  turned  period,  the  well-told 
anecdote,  the  fine  spun  sentimentalism,  or  the  skilful  play 
upon  the  passions  ?  Will  he  not  sooner  reach  his  popu- 
larity, by  sketching  scenes  in  which  the  hearer's  fancy 
may  revel,  than  by  using  the  bone  and  sinew  of  manly 
thought,  to  urge  home  great  principles  of  gospel  doctrine? 
If  he  shall  use  his  fancy  as  a  sort  of  kaleidoscope,  holding 
a  few  fragments  of  thought  in  all  varieties  of  reflection 
and  refraction,  covering  his  leanness  here  and  there  with 
a  purple  patch  of  poetry ;  if  he  shall  strive  to  dazzle  the 
mind  when  he  should  impress  the  heart,  and  be  found 
gathering  flowers  to  charm,  when  he  should  be  uttering 
the  momentous  and  soul-stirring  truths  of  God ;  if  by 
such  means  he  can  convert  the  house  of  God  into  a  place 
of  mere  amusement,  and  preach  himself,  while  he  should 
be  preaching  Christ,  he  will  carry  with  him  the  hosannas 
of  the  many.  He  has  the  gift  for  a  popular  preacher,  and 
will  go  through  our  congregations  altogether,  as  the  lovely 
song  of  one  that  hath  a  pleasant  voice,  and  can  play  well 
upon  an  instrument. 

But  let  him  speak  as  a  dying  man  to  dying  men  ;  let 
him  address  divine  truth  in  naked  simplicity,  to  the  wants 
rather  than  the  tastes  of  his  hearers ;  let  him,  when  occa- 
sion requires,  give  thorough  exhibitions  of  the  great  doc- 
trines of  grace,  and  by  manifestation  of  truth,  and  of  the 
Avhole  truth,  commend  himself  to  every  man's  conscience 
in  the  sight  of  God,  and  he  will  soon  discover  that  he  is 
not  in  the  shortest  way  to  popular  favor.  He  will  see 
itching  ears  averted  from  him.  It  will  be  whispered  to 
him,  that  such  an  one  is  not  fed  by  doctrinal  preaching, 
and  is  longing  for  some  good  practical  sermons.  Another 
does  not  understand  the  doctrines,  and  thinks  it  unprofita- 
ble to  hear  them  till  he  does  understand  them.  Another 
thinks  it  a  mistake  in  God  to  have  revealed  them.  An- 
other thinks  it  unwise  for  ministers  to  preach  them.  An- 
other has  thought  that  ministers  had  long  ago  laid  aside 


these  shocking  points  of  Calvinism,  and  is  astonished  to 
hear  them  preached  in  this  enlightened  age.  And  another 
will  not  hear  them  at  any  rate,  and  will  leave  the  congre- 
gation if  the  minister  continues  to  harp  upon  them. 
Most  truly  is  the  text  descriptive  of  the  taste  of  this  gen- 
eration. The  time  has  come  when  men  will  not  endure 
sound  doctrine,  but  after  their  own  lusts  will  accumulate 
to  themselves  teachers. 

We  may  therefore  find  a  fit  subject  of  discourse,  in  the 
causes  of  the  prevalent  indisposition  to  endure  sound  doc- 
trine, or,  in  other  words,  the  causes  of  the  decline  of  doc- 
trinal preaching. 

I  speak  not  now  of  the  great  and  parent  cause — human 
depravity — which  is  omnipresent  in  its  action,  and  which 
in  some  degree  works  in  both  saints  and  sinners,  and  often 
makes  the  moral  vision  blench  from  beholding  the  full 
beams  of  gospel  truth.  Even  where  grace  really  but 
feebly  exists,  there  yet  lurks  much  of  the  loving  of  dark- 
ness rather  than  light — so  that  there  always  will  be, 
more  or  less  of  dislike  of  doctrinal  preaching.  But  our 
purpose  now  is,  to  look  for  causes  of  a  decline,  in  the 
public  taste  for  such  preaching. 

To  this  decline  both  ministers  and  people  have  con- 
tributed. A  failure  to  preach  sound  doctrine,  is  a  cause 
of  forming  the  public  taste  against  it.  And  whatever  may 
have  occasioned  a  failure  to  preach  the  doctrines,  as  they 
should  be  preached,  must  be  reckoned  among  the  causes 
of  a  public  disrelish  of  them. 

One  cause  of  the  decline  may  lie,  in  an  unskilful  hand- 
ling of  the  doctrines  by  those  who  have  preached  them. 
Some  have  so  connected  the  gospel  doctrines  with  their 
metaphysical  theories,  that  their  preaching  has  been  unin- 
telligible to  the  mass  of  their  hearers  ;  and  thus  they  have 
raised  a  prejudice  against  all  gospel  doctrines.  Others 
have  separated  the  doctrinal  from  the  practical,  and  pre- 
sented doctrines  as  a  dry  skeleton  of  theology,  rather  than 


as  a  body  of  living  and  breathing  truth.  If  the  public 
ear  had  never  been  abused  by  the  separating  of  what  God 
has  joined  together  ;  if  Christian  practice  had  always  been 
inculcated  as  drawing  its  main  enforcements  from  the 
doctrines  of  grace,  and  if,  when  doctrines  were  preached, 
they  had  been  preached  as  the  divine  and  overpowering 
persuasives  to  a  holy  life  ;  the  sickly  disrelish  of  doctrines 
would  have  less  prevalence.  If  the  gospel  must  be  rent 
in  twain  by  its  preachers,  it  matters  not  which  of  the 
fragments  you  retain.  They  who  inculcate  the  practical 
and  experimental  religion  without  the  doctrines,  as  the 
basis  of  experience  and  practice,  and  they  who  present 
the  doctrines  like  truths  in  geometry,  with  no  bearings  on 
the  conscience,  equally  contribute  to  estrange  the  public 
taste  from  them.  It  is  as  needful  to  show  the  use,  as  to 
prove  the  truth  of  the  doctrines.  There  must  be  not  a 
mere  brandishing  of  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  to  show  its 
gleam  and  polish,  but  also  a  use  of  its  edge  and  point. 
We  have  not  done  with  the  preaching  of  the  doctrine  of 
depravity,  for  instance,  till  we  have  brought  the  hearer  with 
a  broken  heart  to  the  foot  of  sovereign  mercy.  We  have 
not  done  with  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement,  till  we  have 
fixed  faith's  eye  on  the  Lamb  of  God,  and  given  a  firm 
seating  to  the  truth,  that  being  bought  with  a  price  we 
are  not  our  own.  Nor  is  God's  sovereignty  well  preached, 
till  the  joy  of  the  heart  is  awoke,  that  the  Lord  God  Om- 
nipotent reigns.  Nor  the  Trinity,  till  the  hearer  is  made 
to  see  it  the  ground  work  of  all  his  hopes,  the  platform  of 
the  most  thrilling  truths  of  the  gospel.  Now  so  far  as 
this  connection  between  the  doctrinal  and  the  practical 
has  been  overlooked  by  preachers,  they  have  contributed 
to  turn  away  the  public  taste  from  doctrinal  preaching. 

Again,  in  so  far  as  preachers  have  distrusted  the  power 
of  the  doctrines,  and  blenched  from  an  urgent  demonstra- 
tion of  their  stronger  points,  they  have  fostered  this  viti- 
ated taste.     If  any  have  forgotten  that  these  truths  are 


the  products  of  God's  wisdom,  and  may  therefore  be 
safely  trusted  as  the  instruments  of  God's  work,  to  go 
freely  in  among  the  passions  and  consciences  of  men — if 
any  have  relied  on  their  own  prudence  and  skill,  to  cut 
and  trim  to  the  caprices  of  their  hearers — if  any,  instead 
of  coming  squarely  forward  to  the  work,  and  laying  on 
with  the  whole  weight  of  the  weapons  of  our  warfare,  so 
massive  and  keen,  are  found  with  soft  hand  patting  the 
lion's  mane  and  stroking  the  leviathan's  scales,  the  whole 
course  of  their  preaching  is  their  testimony  against  the 
safety  of  sound  doctrine.  If  the  preacher  he  afraid  of  the 
doctrines,  it  were  strange  if  the  hearer  should  not  take  the 
contagion  of  his  fears.  If  every  sermon  should  contain 
an  argument  to  prove  it  unsafe  to  preach  the  doctrines, 
that  would  be  a  most  untractable  congregation  that  would 
not  be  convinced  of  it,  after  having  line  upon  line  and 
precept  upon  precept.  Yet  every  sermon  from  which  fear 
excludes  the  doctrines,  is  such  an  argument,  and  the  more 
convincing  because  it  is  a  practical  argument.  Thus  the 
preacher's  fears,  groundless  at  first,  soon  create  good 
grounds  to  fear. 

But  what  shall  he  do  ?  If  his  hearers  will  not  listen  to 
the  whole  truth,  is  it  not  better  to  give  them  the  part  of 
truth  which  they  will  hear,  than  to  drive  them  off  when 
positive  error  is  preached  ?  That  is  not  so  clear.  Positive 
error  is  not  so  much  worse  than  negative  error.  Holding 
back  the  truth  makes  error  of  what  is  preached,  by  throw- 
ing it  out  of  joint  and  proportion.  Besides,  negative  error 
indulged,  will  most  surely  beget  positive  error.  Almost 
all  forms  of  error  have  their  first  spring  in  minds  not  pre- 
occupied by  sound  doctrine.  The  question  then  amounts 
to  this — if  hearers  will  not  hear  us  preach  the  truth,  had 
we  not  better  preach  Universalism  than  drive  them  off 
to  Universalists?     And  that  answers  itself. 

But  this  alternative  is  presented  to  our  fears  oftener  than 
it  exists  in  reality.     The  foolishness  of  God  is  wiser  than 


8 

men.  In  giving  shape  to  his  revelation,  he  did  not  make  it 
all  very  good,  except  in  one  particular,  and  in  that  particular 
commit  the  grand  mistake  of  leaving  it  bare  of  every  thing 
that  could  command  attention.  He  is  not  guilty  of  a 
revelation  that  needs  false  dealing  to  gain  a  hearing.  But 
he  has  given  us  one  which  requires  us  to  renounce  the 
hidden  things  of  dishonesty,  not  walking  in  craftiness,  nor 
handling  the  word  of  God  deceitfully,  but  by  manifesta- 
tion of  truth,  commending  ourselves  to  every  man's  con- 
science in  the  sight  of  God.  If  this  gospel  be  from  God, 
though  it  may  be  that  owing  to  previous  false  dealing  in 
a  given  time  and  place,  men  will  not  endure  sound  doc- 
trine, no  course  of  preaching  in  the  long  run,  and  all 
other  things  being  equal,  will  lay  as  broad  and  deep  a 
hold  on  the  public  mind,  in  this  depraved  and  shattered 
world,  as  that  which  brings  most  fully  out  the  spirit  of 
the  whole  gospel.  By  heaping  to  yourselves  teachers, 
and  gratifying  itching  ears,  by  novel  inventions  and 
spiritual  empiricism,  and  by  humoring  depraved  tastes  in 
covering  up  the  offensive  doctrines,  you  may  draw  de- 
lighted throngs  around  a  distorted  gospel.  But  that  tide 
must  have  its  ebb.  The  mass  of  mind  not  being  rooted 
and  grounded  in  the  truth,  is  just  prepared  to  be  swept 
like  chaff  in  another  direction,  by  the  next  counter-gust 
of  wind.  Yea,  it  is  fitted  to  be  carried  about  by  every 
wind  of  doctrine,  by  the  sleight  of  men,  and  the  cunning 
craftiness  whereby  they  lie  in  wait  to  deceive. 

A  superficial,  partial  course  of  preaching,  on  its  first 
introduction  into  a  community,  not  preoccupied  by  sounder 
views,  will  usually  attract  the  most  hearers.  Even  Christ's 
preaching  sent  some  away  complaining,  "These  are  hard 
sayings,  who  can  hear  them."  And  if  Christ  had  kept 
back  some  offensive  points,  he  might  have  retained  some 
hearers  which  he  lost.  Yet  such  preaching  as  that  of 
Christ  and  his  apostles,  will  ever  be  found  to  have  been 
most   honored  of  God,  in  attracting  a  ransomed   world 


around  the  cross.  The  great  question  for  the  preacher  to 
settle,  is  not  what  will  raise  the  broadest  cloud  of  dust  for 
the  moment,  but  what  will  best  reach  the  heart  and  fit  it 
for  heaven  ?  a  heaven  built  on  the  foundation  of  those 
truths,  which  are  a  stumbling  block  to  the  Jew  and 
foolishness  to  the  Greek — not  what  will  make  the  tallest 
edifice  of  wood,  hay  and  stubble,  but  what  will  rear  the 
broadest  temple  of  lively  stones,  built  up  a  spiritual  house? 
It  is  a  reflection  on  the  wisdom  of  the  master-builder,  to 
fear  to  build  after  his  plan.  And  the  preacher's  distrust 
of  the  power  of  divine  truth,  has  averted  the  taste  of  many 
a  hearer  from  sound  doctrine. 

Indolence  of  thought,  both  in  preachers  and  hearers,  is 
another  cause  of  this  distaste.  It  prevents  preachers  from 
laying  in  the  resources,  for  bringing  forth  things  new  as 
well  as  old  on  doctrinal  themes.  The  well  is  deep  and 
they  have  nothing  to  draw  with,  and  hence  have  not  that 
living  water.  It  is  much  easier  for  them  to  skim  the 
surface,  and  gather  the  dew,  of  what  is  misnamed  prac- 
tical preaching.  And  for  the  hearer,  doctrinal  preaching 
too  much  taxes  the  intellect.  He  is  too  indolent  to  grasp 
the  higher  themes  of  Christian  truth.  Unless  he  have 
acquired  from  early  instruction,  or  from  some  sense  of  the 
importance  of  truth,  or  from  an  inherent  aptitude  of  mind, 
or  what  is  more,  from  the  sanctifying  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost — a  taste  for  such  subjects,  there  will  be  more  or 
less  aversion  for  a  kind  of  preaching,  which  so  taxes  the 
thinking  powers.  And  this  indolence  of  thought  is  fos- 
tered in  proportion  as  preachers  shun  the  doctrines.  It 
better  suits  an  easy,  cushioned  piety,  to  sit  and  be  passively 
borne  along  by  hortatory  appeals,  and  entertained  with 
sparkling  illustrations,  than  to  hold  the  joints  and  follow 
the  train  of  a  doctrinal  argument  And  hence  many  can- 
, aline  sound  doctrine 

Another  cause  may  be  found  in  a  superficial  religious 
training  of  the  young.  Our  congregations  now  are  reared 
2 


10 

in  the  Sabbath  school.  Formerly,  Christian  parents  at 
least,  had  a  sense  of  responsibility  touching  the  religious 
education  of  their  children.  Their  children  went  abroad 
to  school  for  secular  education,  but  the  more  sacred  part 
of  their  training  was  done  in  the  family — the  school 
which  God  has  organized,  mainly  for  this  purpose.  But 
the  introduction  of  Sabbath  schools  has  operated  to  too 
great  an  extent,  to  take  off  from  Christian  parents  the 
sense  of  responsibility  before  felt,  and  to  throw  it  upon 
the  Sabbath  school  teacher.  The  result  is,  the  religious 
instruction  has  gone  over  a  greater  surface,  and  brought 
the  hopes  of  salvation  to  many  who  would  not  have  been 
reached  by  other  means.  Yet  what  is  gained  in  surface 
is  lost  in  depth.  The  aggregate  of  instruction  imparted, 
may  be  greater,  but  the  few  leading  minds  who  guide  the 
tastes  of  the  rest,  have  not  so  deep  acquaintance  and  relish 
of  the  doctrines.  In  the  commencement  of  the  Sabbath 
school  enterprise,  fewer  guards  against  superficial  teaching 
were  used.  Sad  experience  had  not  then  as  it  has  now, 
taught  us  the  danger  of  holding  the  mind  in  a  play  around 
the  shell  and  husk  of  truth.  It  was  a  new  thing  to  teach 
children  the  geography,  history,  botany  and  zoology  of 
the  Bible.  And  in  the  zeal  created  by  this  novelty,  the 
theology  of  the  Bible  was  in  a  measure  forgotten.  And 
the  results  of  this  omission  now  begin  to  be  developed,  in 
the  tastes  of  our  congregations.  The  child,  reared  to 
superficial  thinking,  has  become  a  man,  rejecting  the  pith 
and  marrow  of  the  gospel.  We  had  better  ministers  and 
better  hearers,  when  the  child  was  put  to  conning  by  rote 
a  catechism,  which  he  did  not  understand,  and  held  upon 
it  till  he  did  understand  it,  and  in  understanding  it,  was 
put  in  possession  of  the  higher  relations  and  harmonies  of 
eternal  truth. 

This  source  of  evil  is  aggravated  by  the  shallowness  of 
our  current  literature.  If  that  sort  of  literature  which  is 
most  circulated  is  most  read,  we  must  expect  the  public 


11 

taste  to  be  sickly.  To  simplify  and  illustrate,  and  relieve 
the  reader  of  all  burden  of  thinking,  seems  to  have  been 
the  main  design  of  the  nursing  fathers  of  the  popular 
mind,  in  their  contributions  to  our  literature.  And  that 
popular  mind  has  been  made  an  invalid  by  its  over  delicate 
nursing.  It  has  been  approached  in  its  easy  chair,  its 
food  composed  chiefly  of  simples  or  vegetable  productions. 
For  want  of  appetite  for  strong  meat,  thought  has  been 
attenuated  and  attenuated,  and  reduced  to  pulp  and  noth- 
ingness, or  whipped  into  a  syllabub  of  beautiful  froth,  or 
served  up  in  fiction  as  in  a  sugar  plumb — yea,  it  has  been 
even  masticated  if  not  digested  lest  it  should  cost  the  con- 
sumer too  much  effort.  Thus  he  has  had  his  intellectual 
growth  without  toiling  or  spinning.  From  the  child's 
first  book  to  the  mathematician's  last,  (a  book  reached  by 
few,)  this  labor-saving  principle  has  pervaded  most  of  our 
books  of  instruction,  and  marred  whatever  it  has  touched. 
And  our  books  for  popular  reading  have  been  made  with 
the  same  design.  What  now  if  some  one  should  write  and 
publish  a  book  like  the  ponderous  folios  of  the  Puritan 
age, — a  book  in  which  shall  be  found  solid  ingots  of 
thought,  lifted  from  the  mine  with  giant  hands,  without 
polish  or  artificial  attraction?  What  a  sensation  would 
the  prodigy  create  !  Nay,  what  ruin  would  it  bring  upon 
the  publisher,  and  what  oblivion  upon  the  author  ! 

And  the  religious  popular  reading  has  been  smitten 
with  the  same  debility.  The  process  of  grinding  divinity 
of  other  days  down  into  modern  use,  lias  been  so  accom- 
modating to  indolence,  that  comparatively  few  books  for 
general  reading  have  appeared,  which  either  tax  or  pro- 
mote the  vigor  of  thought.  There  have  been  honorable 
exceptions  to  this  remark  ;  but  we  speak  in  general  terms. 
Mind  has  been  treated  as  if  its  labor  were  a  malum  in  se  ; 
and  thus  crippled  by  its  own  inertia.  The  religious  news- 
paper, the  penny  pamphlet,  the  religious  novel,  the 
ephemeral  biography,  the  book  of  travels,  have  taken  the 


12 

place  in  families,  which  in  other  days,  Flavel,  Howe  and 
Baxter  filled  to  great  acceptance.  And  as  to  volumes  of 
printed  sermons,  the  very  sight  of  them  invites  to  drowsi- 
ness. 

Now  when  it  is  home  in  mind  that  the  popular  taste  is 
adjusted  to  such  a  literature,  secular  and  religious  ;  and 
that  our  congregations  come  from  such  reading  to  the 
hearing  of  the  word,  it  is  no  wonder  that  so  many  cannot 
endure  sound  doctrine. 

Then  the  active  and  stirring  character  of  the  present 
age  aggravates  the  difficulty.  The  mind  and  body  of  the 
business  world  is  propelled  by  steam.  And  its  reading 
and  thinking  must  be  done  in  great  haste.  And  they  who 
write  for  such  readers  and  thinkers  must  so  write,  that  he 
that  runs  may  read  ;  they  must  put  their  thoughts  where 
one  may  catch  them  when  passing  in  a  rail-car. 

Here,  then,  is  a  train  of  influences  most  adverse  to  a 
preparation  of  the  public  mind  to  receive  sound  doctrine. 
In  former  days  the  pulpit  dispensed  its  treasures  among  a 
people  deeply  read  in  the  lively  oracles,  and  in  the  pro- 
ductions of  the  shining  lights  of  the  Puritan  age.  And 
the  difference  is  that,  between  preaching  to  a  congregation 
of  Baxter's  readers,  and  to  a  congregation  of  Bulwer's 
readers. 

Then  our  improvements  in  the  mode  of  theological 
education  have  brought  no  relief  to  this  difficulty.  Theo- 
logical seminaries  have  greatly  increased  the  advantages 
of  students,  and  that  in  some  respects  to  their  disadvan- 
tage. They  have  carried  the  student's  mind  over  a 
greater  surface,  but  in  too  many  instances  failed  to  carry 
it  to  the  needed  depth  of  acquaintance  with  systematic 
theology.  Formerly  it  was  the  custom  for  theological 
students  to  spend  most  of  their  time  upon  the  system  of 
theology,  and  that  for  want  of  the  means  of  extensively 
pursuing  the  collateral  branches.  But  now  the  tendency 
is  in  the  other  extreme.     The  novelty  of  the  pursuit  of 


13 

the  other  branches  in  theological  seminaries,  gave  it  an 
undue  popularity.  Attainments  in  biblical  literature, 
church  history,  sacred,  rhetoric,  and  the  like,  important. 
in  their  place  and  proportion,  have  been  sought  at  the 
expense  of  weightier  matters.  A  little  of  every  thing  has 
been  acquired,  in  time  which  ought  to  have  been  spent  in 
digging  deep  and  laying  the  foundations  well  in  the  prin- 
cipal thing.  Qxrinctilian's  rule,  that  much  reading  of  a 
few  books,  should  be  preferred  to  the  slight  reading  of 
many,  has  been  violated.  Much  effort  has  been  put  forth 
through  the  press  and  other  channels  —  ex-cathedra 
opinions  of  our  distinguished  men  and  theological  profes- 
sors, have  been  circulated  to  magnify  the  relative  im- 
portance of  biblical  studies  over  doctrinal  theology.  Such 
representations,  coming  from  such  sources,  and  with  the 
charm  of  novelty,  and  untested  by  experience  of  their 
pernicious  tendency,  created  a  strong  current  against  such 
studies  as  were  needed  to  give  thorough  acquaintance 
with  the  doctrines  as  a  system.  And  now  we  are  reaping 
the  fruits.  It  is  not  uncommon  for  young  men,  of  the 
first  standing,  to  come  from  the  seminary,  and  show, 
when  examined  for  ordination,  a  miserable  deficiency  in 
what  should  have  been  the  main  branch  of  their  theologi- 
cal studies.  While  they  come  forth  to  be  teachers,  they 
have  need  that  one  should  teach  them  the  very  first  prin- 
ciples of  the  oracles  of  God.  They  may  have  rich  stores 
of  Greek  and  Hebrew  lore,  but  they  have  failed  to  use 
those  riches  as  the  means  of  putting  forth  in  plain  Eng- 
lish, the  great  truths  of  the  gospel.  And  that  not  because 
they  have  not  been  diligent  students,  nor  because  they 
have  not  had  able  and  laborious  instructers  in  doctrinal 
departments.  But  because  their  labor  has  been  misdi- 
rected by  the  taste  and  fashion  which  has  been  given  to 
the  schools.  Their  mind  has  been  under  a  train  of  influ- 
ences, disparaging  doctrinal  knowledge  and  its  means. 
They  have  been  made  to  feel  that  a  sort  of  vulgarity  and 


14 

obsoleteness  was  attached  to  this  "dogmatic  theology" — 
that  other  departments  were  more  befitting  the  erudite 
and  finished  scholar,  and  promised  more  of  the  furniture 
of  a  popular  and  distinguished  preacher.  That  such  a 
current  has  been  running  through  our  seminaries,  I  trust 
none  will  dispute.  But  if  this  be  fact,  it  is  no  wonder 
that  our  congregations  are  trained  to  disrelish  sound  doc- 
trine. 

Another  mischief  has  lurked  in  our  seminaries.  German 
literature  and  German  theology,  (a  muddy  pool,)  has  been 
let  in  upon  the  fountains  of  our  theological  science. 
Because  the  infidels  and  pantheists  of  Germany  had 
excelled  in  Greek  and  Hebrew  letters,  they  were  wel- 
comed with  distinguished  honors,  and  recommended  to 
our  sons  of  the  prophets,  as  fit  helpers  to  the  true  inter- 
pretation of  the  Bible.  German  seminaries  have  been 
minutely  described,  and  German  masters  have  been  mag- 
nified in  the  admiring  ears  of  our  young  men.  And  that 
veneration  of  talent  and  learning,  which  is  so  powerful 
an  element  of  the  young  student's  mind,  was  carried  over 
and  placed  upon  the  masters  of  the  German  schools.  Our 
young  men  have  been  taught,  that  though  these  German 
masters  were  many  of  them  rejectors  of  the  divine 
authority  of  the  Bible,  this  circumstance  was  in  some 
sense  an  advantage,  inasmuch  as  it  made  them  more  im- 
partial, and  free  from  sectarian  bias.  Just  as  if  that  obli- 
quity of  moral  vision,  which  led  themselves  away  from  all 
truth,  was  just  the  thing  to  qualify  them  to  lead  others 
into  all  truth.  Here  is  a  surrender  of  the  principle,  that  a 
right  heart  is  needful  to  a  right  understanding  of  the 
Scriptures.  And  it  involves  the  principle,  that  the  Devil 
himself,  because  he  has  great  talents,  and  no  sectarian 
bias,  would  be  a  fit  helper  to  theological  studies.  Thus, 
instead  of  making  deep  acquaintance  with  Edwards,  Bel- 
lamy, and  Witherspoon,  of  our  own  land,  and  the  masters 
o£  Puritan  theology  in  the  father  land,  whose  intellects, 


15 

inferior  to  no  Germans  of  this  day,  were  chastened  and 
guided  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  we  have  placed  our  young 
men  at  the  feet  of  those  Gamaliels  who  know  not  whether 
there  be  any  Holy  Ghost.  The  result  of  giving  such 
popularity  to  infidels,  and  transcendentalists,  has  been  that 
time  has  been  wasted  in  threading  the  mazes  of  error, 
and  piety  has  lost  its  tone  in  converse  with  an  infidel 
spirit.  The  intellectual  vision  has  been  blurred  by 
attempts  to  read  and  interpret  the  Bible  in  the  colored 
twilight  of  an  infidel  philosophy.  Thus  the  free  use  of 
German  literature  has,  in  spite  of  all  its  advantages,  done 
much  to  depress  the  standard  of  knowledge  in  theology, 
and  diminish  the  amount  of  clear  and  sound  instruction, 
coming  from  our  pulpits.  There  has  been  more  of  bibli- 
cal literature,  but  less  of  the  soul  and  spirit  of  the  Bible 
has  been  poured  out  over  our  congregations.  We  know 
perhaps  more  of  the  botany  and  zoology  of  Palestine,  more 
of  the  rushes  that  grow  on  the  banks  of  the  Jordan,  but 
less  of  the  system  of  salvation  that  was  finished  upon  Cal- 
vary. And  the  error  here  has  not  been,  in  the  use  of  the 
means  of  biblical  instruction,  but  in  such  a  use,  and  in  the 
use  of  such  means,  and  in  their  use  beyond  the  due  pro- 
portion. These  ought  ye  to  have  done,  and  not  to  leave 
the  other  undone. 

Unitarianism,  with  its  nearer  affinities  to  German  tran- 
scendentalism, cannot  live  in  its  atmosphere.  It  has  culti- 
vated German  literature  till  some  of  its  most  valued  sons 
have  imbibed  the  spirit,  and  are  glorying  in  the  delirious 
illusions,  of  a  wretched  pantheism.  And  though  the 
descent  from  our  ground  would  be  farther  and  more  diffi- 
cult, it  would  be  no  wonder,  if  it  should  be  taken  by 
some  ;  so  long  as  our  course  of  theological  study  is  made 
to  lie  through  the  dreams  of  pantheistic  writers.  A\\d  we 
are  fairly  called  upon,  in  the  providence  of  God,  to  review 
and  test  the  wisdom  of  the  policy,  which  installs  an  infidel 
philosophy  to  give   law  to   the  piety  of  the  sons  of  the 


16 

Pilgrims.  Can  we  wonder  that  the  people  will  not  endure 
sound  doctrine,  when  the  ministry  studies  theology  with 
German  spectacles,  and  walks  for  years  in  the  fogs  of 
pantheism. 

If  the  object  of  this  converse  with  the  master  spirits  of 
pantheism,  were  to  prepare  the  ministry  to  combat  their 
delusion,  and  if  our  young  men  were  led  to  the  examina- 
tion of  their  theories,  with  that  express  design,  the  object 
of  the  study  would  remove  the  danger.  And  unless  the 
signs  of  the  times  deceive  us,  there  will  be  occasion 
enough  for  public  refutation  of  pantheism.  To  say  nothing 
of  recent  developements  in  this  country  ;  a  recent  writer 
from  Europe  says,  that  " pantheism  is  the  great  heresy  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  The  St.  Simonians  were  panthe- 
ists. The  followers  of  Charles  Fourier  and  Robert  Owen 
are  mostly  pantheists.  The  celebrated  Hegel,  professor 
in  Berlin,  publicly  taught  pantheism  to  some  thousands  of 
pupils,  who  have  spread  this  doctrine  throughout  Ger- 
many. Several  professors  in  France  maintain  the  same 
opinions.  To  their  ranks  are  now  added  Messrs.  de 
Lamennais  and  Strauss.  Let  Christians  of  all  countries 
be  warned  then  !  Our  real  adversary,  our  great  enemy, 
at  the  present  time,  is  pantheism  !  It  threatens  us,  it 
besets  us  on  all  sides  ;  it  aims  to  strangle  Christianity  in 
its  gigantic  arms.  Against  pantheism  we  must  whet  our 
swords  and  direct  our  blows ;  this  is  what  we  have  to 
conquer  and  destroy."  In  this  posture  of  things,  there 
seems  to  be  a  sad  and  absurd  mistake  in  our  sending  our 
young  men  to  school  to  pantheistic  writers,  and  that  under 
the  impression  that  such  are  valuable  interpreters  of  the 
Bible. 

Again,  some  of  the  machinery  used  to  promote  revivals, 
has  aggravated  the  evil.  Protracted  meetings  conducted 
by  itinerant  evangelists,  usually  leave  an  impression  un- 
favorable to  doctrinal  preaching.  The  very  design  of 
such  meetings,  got  up  for  the  sake  of  producing  a  revival, 


17 

assumes  an  erroneous  principle  in  theology.  The  Armi- 
nian  placing  moral  suasion  before  the  work  of  the  Holy- 
Spirit,  assumes  that  that  work  can  be  secured  by  the  mere 
adding  of  intensity  to  moral  suasion,  and  he  of  course  is 
consistent  with  himself,  when  he  resorts  to  a  protracted 
meeting  as  a  means  of  producing  a  revival.  He  attaches 
to  human  machinery  just  the  power  which  his  theology 
attaches  to  it.  But  the  theology  of  the  Bible,  while  it 
puts  no  restrictions  upon  the  frequency  of  our  preaching 
the  gospel  in  revivals,  other  than  what  the  health  of  body 
and  mind  require,  gives  no  occasion  or  countenance  for 
the  habit  of  sending  abroad  for  famous  revival  preachers, 
arranging  circumstances  for  scenic  effect,  and  for  start- 
ling appeals  to  public  curiosity.  This  in  us  is  bad  the- 
ology, and  bad  consistency.  It  is  inculcating  error  by  our 
practice,  and  it  brings  preachers  into  temptation  to  preach 
error.  The  design  of  the  meetings  being  based  on  error, 
can  hardly  be  carried  out  without  preaching  error : — that 
design  is,  with  the  aid  of  animal  passions  and  sympathies, 
to  condense  such  a  power  of  suasion  on  the  public  mind, 
as  will  draw  in  converting  influence  independently  of 
sovereign  grace  ;  and  minds  acting  in  that  design,  though 
unconsciously,  will  be  next  to  sure  to  utter  thoughts  in 
their  preaching  in  harmony  with  it.  But  the  greatest 
danger  of  error,  lies  in  the  temptation  to  omit  important 
truth.  The  time  is  set  in  which  the  work  must  be  done. 
The  preacher's  mind  is  touched  by  the  limits  of  his  time, 
and  it  insensibly  seizes  upon  the  topics  of  hortatory  ad- 
dress and  the  instruments  of  moving  the  passions,  and  he 
cannot  wait  to  see  the  salvation  of  God  attending  the 
enforcement  of  the  doctrines  of  the  cross.  Thus  these 
doctrines  are  unconsciously,  if  not  by  design,  kept  out  of 
view.  And  though  there  be,  as  sometimes  there  is,  a  real 
work  of  grace  in  connection  with  such  meetings,  a  greater 
proportion  of  spurious  conversions  occur  than  under  ordi- 
nary preaching ;  and  those  really  converted,  not  having 
3 


18 

based  their  experience  on  a  clear  perception  of  the  doc- 
trines of  grace,  never  come  to  apprehend  them  clearly, 
nor  to  love  and  encourage  the  preaching  of  them  ;  and 
churches  replenished  by  them,  can  ill  endure  sound  doc- 
trines. 

Again,  an  excess  of  immediateism  pervading  the  public 
mind,  is  another  source  of  the  difficulty.  It  is  very  true, 
that  ministers  and  churches  ought  to  expect  and  shape 
their  exertions  for  present  results,  so  far  as  the  nature  of 
the  case  will  admit.  But  much  of  the  minister's  work, 
consisting  in  laying  foundations  for  future  results,  cannot 
be  based  on  the  expectation  of  present  effect.  And  this 
work  upon  foundations,  is  very  essential  to  the  lasting 
prosperity  of  the  church,  and  can  no  more  be  dispensed 
with  than  that  which  looks  immediately  to  the  conversion 
of  sinners.  The  notion  that  the  present  conversion  of  the 
hearer,  must,  in  all  circumstances,  be  the  immediate  and 
only  object  of  every  sermon,  is  a  piece  of  downright 
quackery.  A  missionary  among  the  heathen  is  there  for 
the  conversion  of  sinners ;  but  he  finds  a  vast  labor  to  be 
done  before  he  can  bring  the  motives  to  conversion  to 
direct  and  extensive  bearing.  And  much  of  every  minis- 
ter's work  must  re?pect  a  good  to  be  compassed  in  future 
years.  We  are  encouraged  to  labor,  under  the  promise 
that  he  that  goeth  forth  and  weepeth,  bearing  precious 
seed,  shall  come  again  bringing  his  sheaves  with  him. 
Our  work  is  compared  to  that  of  the  husbandman  who 
waiteth  for  the  precious  fruit  of  the  earth,  and  hath  long 
patience  for  it,  until  he  receive  the  former  and  the  latter 
rain.  If  Paul  was  sent  to  plant  and  Apollos  to  water, 
they  must  both  wait  awhile  before  they  could  reap  the 
harvest. 

The  overlooking  of  this  plain  matter,  in  the  Christian 
economy,  has  been  disastrous,  as  affecting  the  policy  as  to 
doctrinal  instruction.  Preachers  have  been  so  anxious  to 
reap  at  once,  that  they  have  declined  to  sow  seed  that 


19 

would  require  time  to  grow.  And  so  they  have  either 
sown  chair,  that  could  produce  nothing,  or  else  a  sort  of 
mushroom  seed,  that  would  produce  its  best  in  a  night. 
Because  direct  exhortations  and  urgent  appeals  to  the  pas- 
sions, seem  more  immediately  related  to  present  results, 
than  plain  instruction  in  Christian  doctrines,  they  have 
been  preferred.  But  the  preference  is  founded  on  a  great 
mistake — that  of  supposing  that  God  has  lodged  all  the 
quickening  and  impressive  power  of  divine  truth  in  a  few 
detached  texts  and  illustrations,  and  withheld  it  from  the 
great  and  comprehensive  principles  of  his  word.  This 
sickly  reliance  on  a  few  favorite  topics  of  exhortation,  to 
the  exclusion  of  the  doctrines,  seems  like  doing  battle 
with  two  or  three  swivels,  while  we  impose  silence  upon 
whole  broad  sides  of  heavier  guns.  Nay,  if  present  im- 
pression were  the  only  object  ;  if  the  gospel  ministry  had 
come  to  its  last  day  ;  if  the  morrow's  sun  were  to  pilot 
in  the  splendors  and  the  terrors  of  the  judgment  day,  and 
if  we  had  our  congregations  before  us  for  the  last  time. 
we  could  do  nothing  better  than  to  draw  the  urgency  of 
our  last  appeals  from  the  great  doctrines  of  grace.  And 
yet  in  the  conceit,  that  the  doctrines  are  not  suited  to 
present  effect,  they  are  suffered  by  some  to  repose  and 
rust  in  the  magazine,  as  antiquated  weapons,  unsuited  to 
present  modes  of  battle. 

But  present  results  are  but  a  small  part  of  the  great 
object  of  ministerial  labor.  Those  labors  which  look  to 
future  and  lasting  results,  are  quite  as  important  as  the 
others ;  and  this  overhaste  to  do  the  work  all  at  once,  is 
like  an  attempt  to  hasten  the  growth  of  a  plant  by  pulling 
up  the  blade.  It  excludes  those  forms  of  action  and  influ- 
ence, which  gradually  bring  up  a  church  from  weakness 
to  broad  and  deep  elliciency.  it  takes  away  the  needful 
labor  from  settling  the  foundations,  and  bestows  it  upon 
garnishing  the  cupola,  and  so  leaves  the  structure  to  be 
swept    away    when    the    tempest   comes.     It   compels   a 


20 

church  in  the  choice  of  a  minister,  to  get  one  that  will 
build  them  up  in  a  year.  It  makes  a  demand  for  a  sort 
of  preacher  and  preaching,  that  will  annihilate  all  obstruc- 
tions by  force  of  popular  and  vehement  declamation.  A 
new  church  perhaps  is  formed ;  the  outlays  are  freely 
made  in  expectation  of  speedy  and  rich  results.  A  preacher 
is  sought  for  his  popularity  and  immediateism.  The  cir- 
cumstances of  the  case  and  public  expectation,  bind  him 
to  build  the  church  right  up  at  once.  He  goes  to  the 
work  on  the  false  principle,  that  what  is  not  done  imme- 
diately is  not  done  at  all ;  and  he  proves  it  true  in  his 
own  experience.  The  tide  of  popularity  which  the  vehe- 
mence of  his  first  efforts  drew  around  him  has  its  ebb, 
and  having  failed  to  throw  the  grasp  of  the  powerful  doc- 
trines upon  the  heart  of  his  hearers,  he  has  lost  his  hold 
upon  them  and  is  left  to  emptiness.  And  while  he  has 
failed  of  his  immediate  object,  he  has  thrown  his  hearers 
farther  from  the  embrace  of  gospel  doctrines,  and  from 
being  rooted  and  grounded  in  the  truth. 

This  view  of  our  subject  reveals  a  leading  cause  of  the 
fluctuations  in  the  condition  of  many  churches.  The 
overhaste  for  results  has  begot  a  ruinous  policy.  It  has  left 
unused  the  main  part  of  that  instrumentality  by  which  the 
man  of  God  is  thoroughly  furnished  to  every  good  work, 
and  by  which  the  church  is  prepared  to  fulfil  her  destiny. 
It  has  rejected  the  advantage  of  having  public  instruction 
carried  forward  on  broad  principles,  and  rearing  a  people 
with  clear  and  decided  views  of  divine  truth.  It  has  in- 
trusted the  safety  and  prosperity  of  the  church  upon  a  frail 
basis,  by  placing  the  main  stress  upon  a  novel  and  attrac- 
tive manner  of  preaching,  without  regard  to  the  substance. 
Hence  the  frequent  changes.  A  preacher  sought  for  the 
novelty  of  his  maimer,  must  soon  give  place  to  a  more 
novel  successor.  And  popular  preachers,  as  their  peculiar 
talent  thrives  best  by  frequent  uprooting  and  transplant- 
ing, are  in  a  favorable  field  to  cultivate  a  still  more  popu- 


21 

Lar  manner.  But  that  church  that  has  a  use  for  the  whole 
gospel,  and  seeks  to  thrive  hy  laying  instruction  deep  in 
the  public  conscience,  has  a  motive  to  deprecate  such 
changes.  Such  a  church  wants  a  pastor  who  expects  to 
live  and  die  with  them,  and  who,  instead  of  trimming 
himself  for  another  market,  is  preaching  as  a  candidate  to 
the  rising  generation  of  his  own  parish,  and  forming  the 
minds  of  his  young  people,  to  such  a  clear  and  copious 
reception  of  the  truth,  that  they  may  come  up  around 
him,  with  clear  minds  and  sanctified  hearts,  to  such  posi- 
tions of  influence  as  only  well  instructed  Christians  can 
hold.  The  church  and  ministry  that  pursues  such  a 
policy,  escape  those  occasions  of  disastrous  change,  inci- 
dent to  those  churches  that  live  or  die  with  the  waxing  or 
waning  popularity  of  their  preacher. 

Our  subject  gives  us  a  clue  to  the  reason  of  that  morbid 
state  of  the  public  mind,  which  makes  it  tinder  to  every 
wandering  spark  of  error.  The  facility  with  which  men, 
not  deficient  in  mental  capacity,  take  up  the  crudest 
absurdities — from  the  philosophic  moonshine  of  the  Pan- 
theists to  the  vulgar  prophecyings  and  impostures  of  the 
Mormonites — is  a  remarkable  feature  of  the  age.  And 
what  has  caused  it  ?  Surely,  if  we  note  well  the  nature 
of  these  errors,  we  shall  not  consider  their  ready  adoption 
any  compliment  to  the  intelligence  of  the  age  ;  we  shall 
not  ascribe  them  to  the  march  of  mind,  nor  say  that  our 
much  learning  has  made  us  mad.  The  true  cause  will 
doubtless  be  found  in  the  gradual  retrocession  of  the  inllu- 
ence  of  evangelical  doctrines  over  the  mass  of  mind.  It 
accords  with  the  laws  of  the  human  mind,  both  physical 
and  moral,  that  these  principles  of  the  divine  government 
shall  be  indispensable  to  its  regulation.  A  failure  to  hold 
vigorously  forth  the  great  doctrines  of  grace,  which  had 
begun  before  the  days  of  Edwards  and  Whitefield,  let  in 
a  flood  of  Arminianism.  The  next  natural  step  of  de- 
parture developed  Unitarianism.     And  the  diffusion  of  the 


22 

principles  and  spirit  of  these  two  systems,  as  far  as  they 
went,  bereft  the  mind  of  rudder  and  compass,  and  left  it 
the  sport  of  casual  winds.  And  the  state  of  Unitarianism 
at  this  moment,  arfords  an  affecting  illustration  of  the 
results  of  cutting  loose  from  the  doctrines  of  the  cross. 
Smitten  with  the  disease  called  transcendentalism,  many 
of  its  leading  minds  are  found  wandering  about  in  the 
ultima  thule  of  error,  otherwise  called  "  the  latest  form  of 
infidelity,"  and  answering  most  fitly  to  this  description  of 
the  prophet — "  Stay  yourselves  and  Avonder,  cry  ye  out 
and  cry,  they  are  drunken,  but  not  with  wine ;  they  stag- 
ger, but  not  with  strong  drink :  for  the  Lord  hath  poured 
out  upon  them  a  spirit  of  deep  sleep,  and  hath  closed 
their  eyes  ;  their  prophets  and  their  rulers,  and  their  seers 
hath  it  covered." 

The  same  cause,  throwing  mind  from  its  moorings,  has 
begotten  nameless  empirical  theories,  and  principles  of 
benevolent  action,  which  have  thrown  jars  and  impedi- 
ments in  the  way  of  Christian  benevolence,  and  which 
have  arrayed  a  spurious  philanthropy  in  a  warfare  against 
the  settled  institutions  of  Christianity.  Here  we  see  the 
fruits  of  being  wise  above  what  is  written,  and  of  depart- 
ing from  a  vigorous  use  of  the  great  doctrines  of  grace. 
Such  crudities  were  never  conceived  in  minds  that  had 
been  penetrated  by  the  humbling  doctrines  of  the  cross. 
We  may  contrast  the  present  prevalence  of  error,  with  the 
sway  of  truth  in  the  palmier  days  of  the  New  England 
church,  and  trace  the  main  deterioration,  to  the  pulpit's 
failure  to  give  a  certain  sound,  when  a  faithful  enunciation 
of  the  doctrines  of  grace,  would  have  been  to  the  public 
mind  an  anchor,  sure  and  steadfast.  From  generation  to 
generation,  the  pulpit  has  made  concessions  to  the  spirit 
and  demands  of  error,  and  forborne  to  hold  forth  those 
points  of  God's  truth  that  are  oifcnsive  to  the  carnal  mind, 
and  expected  that  a  gospel  thus  shorn  of  its  strength, 
would  still  continue   to  do  a  gospel's  work.     But  it  was 


23 

like  taking  away  the  bones,  muscles,  and  soul  of  a  man, 
and  continuing  the  demand  of  labor  from  him.  It  was 
to  be  expected  that,  so  far  as  the  public  mind  should  set 
aside  those  great  principles  of  God's  government  over 
mind,  place  would  be  given  for  those  preachers  of  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  anarchy,  who  are  now  demanding  the 
prostration  of  all  order,  and  who,  under  pretence  of  a 
freer  and  holier  gospel,  are  crying  against  every  gospel 
institution,  "  Rase  it — rase  it  to  the  foundation  thereof." 
God  has  let  in  upon  us  just  enough  of  this  thing,  to 
show  us  where  this  course  of  temporizing  would  end, 
and  then  mercifully  restrained  the  remainder,  so  as  to 
give  us  opportunity  to  retrace  our  steps  and  to  ask  for  the 
old  paths. 

The  causes  of  this  decline  of  doctrinal  preaching,  arc 
so  multiplied,  that  the  remedy  must  embrace  many  par- 
ticulars, and  its  application  is  the  concern  of  every  min- 
ister and  Christian  ;  and  it  is  the  solemn  duty  of  every 
one  to  stand  in  his  lot,  and  encourage  and  sustain  a  more 
full  and  earnest  inculcation  of  the  strong  doctrines  of  the 
gospel.  I  know  it  is  a  thankless  work.  Popular  favor  is 
gained  by  sailing  smoothly  along  the  popular  currents, 
and  not  by  counterworking  them.  Yet  Christian  minis- 
ters are  supposed  to  regard  their  obligations  to  God,  and 
to  the  welfare  of  a  dying  world,  and  when  occasion  re- 
quires, to  make  a  stand  for  truth  against  the  good  pleasure 
of  men,  and  against  all  vitiating  tendencies  of  the  public 
mind.  God  said  to  his  ministry  of  old,  "  See,  I  have  set 
thee  over  the  nations  to  pluck  up  and  to  pull  down,  and 
to  destroy,  to  build  and  to  plant."  The  building  of  the 
spiritual  temple  requires  the  demolishing  of  opposing 
structures.  And  the  planting  of  the  garden  of  the  Lord 
is  not  well  done,  without  the  plucking  up  of  noxious 
plants.  And  though  this  part  of  the  work  should  require 
self-denials,  who  are  we  that  we  should  decline  it? 

When  the  interests  of  Christian  truth  are  at  stake,  it  is 


24 

no  time  to  take  counsel  of  our  fears,  and  shrink  from 
declaring  the  whole  counsel  of  God.  If  the  cause  of 
Christ  in  any  place  will  suffer,  by  declaring  the  whole 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  let  it  suffer.  He  will  see  to  it.  If 
speaking  the  truth  in  love,  in  faithfulness  and  prayer,  will 
ruin  the  cause  of  truth,  let  it  go  to  ruin.  The  same 
means  will  lift  it  up  again,  and  bring  it  forth  to  a  more 
broad  and  finished  glory. 


Princeton  Theologic 


1    1012  01082  0258 


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DATE  DUE 

um  9f^ 

M^P^WW 

a 

GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  U    S    A. 

